The charge of the Light Brigade is one of Britain's best-known glorious military disasters. On 25 October 1854, during the siege of Sebastopol, the Light Brigade attacked Russian gun positions at Balaclava. The charge lasted 7 and 1/2 minutes; of 673 officers and men who went into action, 247 men and 497 horses were lost. This book shatters many long-held conceptions of how and why it happened, and who was to blame. Mark Adkin, a former professional soldier, has combined military expertise and detailed research of participants' accounts with a careful examination of the actual ground. The result is a gripping and definitive study of a debacle that has never ceased to entral the imagination. 'Judicious and very moving. This book is for anyone wanting to know about what PROBABLY happened on that day 142 years ago.

It very often gets as near the truth as any account is ever likely to'TLS.